


Stay By My Side

by everywinter



Series: The Ordeal of Being Known [2]
Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Teen Wolf (TV) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Coming of Age, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-06-13 08:50:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15360753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everywinter/pseuds/everywinter
Summary: 23/02/2019 - On temporary hiatus.“Listen,” He said up to the sky, “I don’t know who I’m even talking to, if there’s anyone out there, but I’m just one guy. I literally just gained the ability to sign my own permission slips in school, but my friends are all actual children, I watched Wonpil miss his mouth three times while trying to apply lip-balm the other day. I know I have arms like cooked spaghetti noodles and I’m not really all that smart, but I am pretty damn desperate. And I’m in love with the world’s softest, teenage werewolf, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.”-Jae learns magic. Balancing his personal life and school with this world-saving stuff is way harder than Harry Potter made it seem.Teen Wolf!AU where Brian's a kumiho, Dowoon knows how to kill you thirteen ways with a fork, Wonpil is a werewolf, and Sungjin sees dead people.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Continuation of a oneshot I wrote earlier. You don't need to read that to understand this, but it might be a little easier to understand.

Jae coughed as he sprinkled the dried mugwort over the small fire he’d built in the backyard. He inhaled deeply and let out another wheezing cough. It smelled vaguely like weed and Jae quickly pulled out the piece of paper he’d written the incantation on.

 

He glanced around to make sure the neighbours were still in their houses before he began. “Lady of the Night, bless my soul with your light, Queen of the Moon, let your magic fill my room.” Jae winced, “Oh, shit. I’m not about to set a fire indoor though, so, well… Sorry, I guess. Silver Dust of the bright Stars, heal my wounds, erase my scars, let me wander in your realm free, nurture my body like a healthy tree? Yikes… Wait, three more times?”

 

Jae groaned and ran his hands through his hair, sitting down in front of the fire-pit. “Listen,” He said up to the sky, “I don’t know who I’m even talking to, if there’s anyone out there, but I’m just one guy. I literally just gained the ability to sign my own permission slips in school, but my friends are all actual children, I watched Wonpil miss his mouth three times while trying to apply lip-balm the other day, and even though I’m just a squishy, useless human, it’s my responsibility to protect them. I know I have arms like cooked spaghetti noodles and I’m not really all that smart, but I am pretty damn desperate. And I’m in love with the world’s softest, teenage werewolf, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

 

The fire was dying down, so Jae picked up the bucket of water and put the rest of it out, eyes watering from the plume of smoke. “Stupid, Dowoonie… telling me to talk to stupid Eric about my stupid ‘spark’… and that stupid chant was like something he found online.”

 

He stomped upstairs and peeled off his hoodie and shorts before flopping into bed in his boxers. A breeze blew in through the window, bringing the smell of mugwort and smoke with it, and Jae really hoped that the smell dissipated before his mom came home, or there was an awkward ‘illicit substances are bad’ conversation in his near future.

 

Jae dreamed that night.

 

A girl, maybe a couple years younger than him, appeared. She was tall, maybe a couple inches shorter than he is, slender, with dark eyes and long, sleek, hair. The translucent white robes she was wearing hugged her breasts and, even though it was just a dream, Jae fought to keep his eyes on her face.

 

“Hoooly crap, this is a weirdly vivid.” It was nighttime, the half-moon shining in the sky reflected against a still lake and the two of them were bordered by a ring of tall, lush pines. The air was still and the entire glen empty but for the two of them.

 

Jae felt a level of control that he usually doesn’t have in dreams. “Maybe the mugwort was worth it, I’ve always wanted to try lucid dreaming.”

 

The girl arched a dark eyebrow, a grin spreading over her pretty face. “Should I be concerned for my virtue?”

 

“No!” Jae felt himself blushing for some reason. “Why am I justifying myself to a figment of my own imagination? Is this some weird sexual repression thing? Why am I feeling guilty about a wet dream?”

 

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and patted the bed next to her. “Come sit.”

 

Jae did as he was told. The covers felt cold, silk catching against the calluses on his fretting hand, and he could feel goosebumps rising on his arms. “This is a really weird dream. This is a dream, isn’t it?”

 

“This is a dream.” She confirmed, fingers brushing his own. “You asked for this, didn’t you? You called for me, so here I am.”

 

“Oh.” Jae blinked, remembering the incantation. “I guess I did. Sorry, but who are you?”

 

Her laugh was like waves crashing against the shore. “In the future, I would recommend avoiding shouting into the void for help from an unknown source. That’s how people get bound to eldritch deities.”

 

“Well, if you heard me, you know exactly why.”

 

“Why else do you think I’m here?”

 

“I still don’t know who you are.”

 

“Selune, goddess of the moon, beauty, love, dreamers, diviners, wanders, tracking, seekers, and” Her smile grew sly and she leaned in closer. “werewolves. Especially the soft, teenage type.”

 

“So, does that mean you’re going to turn me into a werewolf?” Jae recoiled, jumping off the bed. “Thanks, but no thanks. That isn’t what I want.”

 

“I know that too. It’s an option, but that’s not what I’m offering.” Selune patted the bed again. “Relax, I’m not here to hurt you. I understand what it’s like to not have the power to protect the ones you love, to have to watch from the sidelines. I’ve been watching you, Jaehyung Park, and I can see the spark in you.”

 

“Yeah, I’ve heard all about my magic spark. It’s completely useless,” Jae sat tentatively on the edge of the bed. “my mentor, Eric, said that it’s too raw to be harnessed on my own and there isn’t a mage in the state strong enough to teach me how to focus it. He said that I’m too… unrefined. Last time he gave me a witchlight, I tried to get it to glow and ended up blowing it to smithereens. Even gave him a cut on his forehead that needed stitches.” He added miserably, picking at the covers.

 

“I just told you that I was a literal goddess with a vast domain. I’m not trying to gloat, but I’m a step up from a common mage.” Selune took his hand in hers and, for some reason, Jae was a little surprised to find that she was warm. “I’m offering you the opportunity to learn to use your spark to its fullest potential, to protect the people you care about, but it comes at a price.”

 

Jae’s suspicion must have shown on his face because Selune threw her head back as she laughed. “It’s nothing nefarious, I promise! But all power comes at a price and even as I help you, teach you, it’ll paint a target on your back.”

 

“I already have a target on my back.” Jae gave her a rueful grin. “I just want to be able to shoot back.”

 

“I don’t ask for much, but if you’re going to follow me, I have rules.”

 

 _Knew there had to be a catch._ “Lay them on me.”

 

“First, acceptance and tolerance.” Jae nodded, easy enough. “That means for yourself too. The path ahead of you won’t be an easy one. The path ahead for you and your friends isn’t entirely clear to me, but I can see that you’ll be put into harsh situations. You’ll change and it’s important you accept that change. In them, and in yourself.”

 

He nodded, more slowly this time. “I can promise to try.”

 

“Good, the second is not to lose yourself in any of this.” Selune’s hand was warm on the centre his chest, pale skin against pale skin. “Don’t lose yourself to the power, to the magic, the urge to protect the people around you.”

 

Jae gave her a disbelieving look. “My sense of self-preservation is incredibly strong, I don’t think we need to worry about that one.”

 

“You say that now, but I’ve been watching you and your friends since Wonpil was bitten.” Jae must have made a weird face because Selune rolled her eyes and gently flicked him on the forehead. ( _I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about this._ ) “Don’t be childish, the point is, I _do_ know you Jae. You’re headstrong and determined to follow your own path, but you’re also struck with insecurities about your importance in this world.”

 

“Woah, way to expose a guy…”

 

“You’re hopeless.” She smiled fondly before looking up at the still dark sky. “The sun’s coming up soon. I’ll give you your blessing, then you probably need to get up for school.”

 

“Okay,” Jae sat up straighter, pushing his hair out of his face. “I’m ready to be blessed.”

 

“Come closer,” Selune put a hand against Jae’s chest. “I’d also appreciate if you didn’t run away without a word after this.”

 

“No promises.”

 

Jae woke up to the sun shining through his blinds. His alarm still hadn’t gone off, but he could feel the phantom brush of lips against his own. He didn’t feel any different from before and when he looked around the room, there was no evidence that his encounter with Selune had ever been real.

 

He rolled over in bed with a sigh. There weren’t any noises coming from inside the house, so his mom either hadn’t come home yet, or had already gone to bed. It was two hours before he had to leave for school, but Jae knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. After quickly getting ready, eyes still half closed through the process, Jae put on a podcast and started pulling things out of the cupboards for oatmeal.

 

The swoosh of the front door opening alerted him of his mother’s return home. “Welcome home! I’m in the kitchen!” He called, pouring out more oats for his mother. “I’m making oatmeal.”

 

“I’m home!” His mother made his way into the kitchen, still dressed in her uniform. Jae could see dark circles under her eyes, but she smiled as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Smells good. Not that I’m not happy to have a hot breakfast waiting for me, but why are you up so early?”

 

Jae pressed a hand to his chest in fake affront. “A filial son can’t wake up early to make sure his hard-working mother has a home cooked meal waiting for her?”

 

“A filial son? Sure. My Jaehyungie? Unlikely.”

 

She laughed at Jae’s irate “Hey!” and made her way up the stairs to change out of her uniform. By the time she’d come back down the stairs, Jae had served up the oatmeal and was busy pouring way too much brown sugar into his own.

 

His mom reached for the sugar and Jae snatched it out of her hands, handing her a banana. “No, I saw your last health report, you have to cool it on the sugar. Have a banana instead, they’re good for lowering blood pressure.”

 

“Jaehyung, I am your mother and a grown woman! I’m not about to let you restrict my diet.”

 

The two glared at each other for a moment, identical eyes narrowed, equally stubborn before his mother took the banana with a groan. Jae grinned, triumphantly putting the sugar back into the cupboard. “I miss your noona, she let me eat whatever I wanted.”

 

“Yeah, but noona can’t braid hair and gets nail polish all over your toes every single time we have movie night.”

 

“When’s the last time we even had movie night?” She asked with a pout. “You’re always busy with your friends lately.”

 

Guilt crept up Jae’s spine as he thought about all the nights he’d spent running around in the woods while his mother though he was safe at Brian’s house. “I’m sorry, Mom. Maybe we can do something together this weekend?”

 

“Oh, baby, I was just teasing.” She patted his hand. “You’re all grown up now, I get it, I want you to have fun with your friends.”

 

“I have fun with you too,” Jae insisted, “I want to spend time with you this weekend. We can catch up on CSI and throw popcorn at the screen when they do things against protocol.”

 

“Yeah, ix-nay on the popcorn throwing though. You always pretend to fall asleep before the end and leave me to clean it all up.”

 

“I wouldn’t do it if you didn’t let me get away with it.” Jae scraped the last of his oatmeal from the bottom of his bowl. “I’ve gotta go. I’m picking up Brian and Dowoon this morning too.”

 

“Wait!” He looked back from where he was halfway out the door. His mom had her hands on her hips. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

 

He patted his pockets. Phone, keys, wallet, he’d packed his backpack after finishing his homework yesterday, so he knew he had everything… “I don’t think so…?”

 

She turned her face to the side and Jae groaned. “Come on, Mom, I’m 18 years old-”

 

“I carried you for nine months,” She declared over his protests, “I was in labour for 19 hours and had to get seven stitches in my-”

 

“OKAY, I get it! I’m a horrible son!” He kissed her smiling cheek and all but sprinted out the door. “Love you!”

 

“Let me know if you’ll be home for dinner!” She called after him as he scrambled into his old red Jeep. “Love you too!”

 

Jae shot Brian a text when he got to his house and grinned when Dowoon followed him out to the car. “Lovebirds,” He greeted, “have a good night?”

 

Dowoon flushed red while Brian returned Jae’s grin. “Shut up and drive, we’re going to be late.”

 

“Aw, nothing to be embarrassed about, Dowoonie. Bask in the joys of young love.”

 

“Speaking of young love,” Brian said, fiddling with the radio. “you talk to Wonpil about your little situation yet?”

 

“There’s no situation.” Jae insisted, even as he can feel his heartbeat quicken. “We’re fine. We’re chill.”

 

“Yeah,” Jae could see the look Brian was giving him out of the corner of his eye. “that just means you haven’t talked about it, am I right?”

 

“What’s there to talk about? We kissed, it doesn’t have to mean anything.”

 

Dowoon snorted from the backseat. “I’m going to have to call bullshit on that one.”

 

“You’re a fetus, what do you know even know?”

 

“More than you,” Dowoon shot back, “I’m the one in a long term relationship.”

 

“Get the out of my car.” Jae pulled up to the school and parked in his designated spot. “You two are ungrateful brats.”

 

“You love us.” Dowoon passed Jae his backpack as they walked towards the school together. “We add colour to your morning.”

 

“You add unnecessary stress to my morning.”

 

“So, are we meeting up tonight for the full moon?” Jae yelped at Sungjin’s sudden appearance beside him. “My mom said to stay out of the alcohol cabinet and to make sure no one sees Pillie if we decide to go swimming in the lake.”

 

“It’s the middle of May, we’re not swimming in the lake.” Jae gave Sungjin an assessing look. “Dude, your hair is getting super long.”

 

He pushed his dark bangs out of his face. “I know, I’m trying to grow it out. My mom says it’s traditional to let your hair grow once you come into your powers.”

 

Brian’s nose wrinkled. “There’s grooming guidelines for banshees?”

 

“Apparently so,” Sungjin touched his hair again, self-consciously this time. “I don’t know if I’m going to keep it though. Does it look weird?”

 

“I like it!” Jae jumped as Wonpil popped up on Sungjin’s other side. “You look cool when you push your hair back.”

 

“Geeze, you people need to learn to make noise when you walk!” Jae pressed a hand to his pounding heart ( _Definitely because Wonpil had snuck up like that and for no other reason_ ). “Do you want a ride to the cabin tonight?”

 

“Sure, I’ll text you after dinner?” Wonpil waved as the others peeled off towards their own classroom. “Did you pick a new book for us?”

 

Jae pulled two identical paperbacks out of his backpack and handed one of them to Wonpil. “An oldie, but a goodie.”

 

“Seriously?” Wonpil groaned, “Lord of the Rings? You’re just doing this because I wouldn’t watch the movies with you.”

 

“You said you didn’t want to watch the films before reading the books, so let’s read the books!”

 

“Yeah, no, you said ‘books’ plural.” Wonpil sat down at his desk next to Jae. “You only get to choose one, that’s the rule!”

 

“Are you serious, you made me read Dune last round. That thing’s thick as a Bible!” Jae waved his more than half-filled notebook in front of Wonpil’s face. “Look how much room it took up in my notebook! I swear, if I had to read that girl’s face described as ‘elven’ one more time, I was going to lose my mind.”

 

Wonpil rolled his eyes and pushed the notebook away. “I know, I read it in your notes. Don’t even pretend, you loved the world-building.”

 

“You two are unbelievable.” Jimin said from the seat behind them. “Don’t we have enough to do without the two of you taking notes on your reading for pleasure?”

 

“Don’t be jealous, Jimin.” Wonpil threw an arm over Jae’s shoulder, pressing their heads together. “Our bond is unique and undefinable.”

 

She rolled her eyes, a small smile pulling across her lips. “That’s one way of putting it.”

 

Wonpil had a pout on his face and opened his mouth to reply when Mr. Martin walked in, signaling a start to the class.

 

Jae watched as he stuck his tongue out at Jimin instead. He grabbed Wonpil’s outstretched tongue between his thumb and forefinger snickering at his outraged expression. Jae wiped his fingers on Wonpil’s shirt, shoulders shaking as Wonpil beat at his arm with his fists. Obviously Wonpil wasn’t all that upset, considering he could literally break Jae’s arm with a punch.

 

“Mr. Park, Mr. Kim.” The both froze at the sound of the teacher’s voice. “Do I need to separate the two of you?”

 

The two of them gave muttered ‘no, sorry’s and the teacher gave them a fond, but exasperated look before turning back to the whiteboard.

 

Wonpil poked Jae’s hand with his fancy fountain pen ( _What a giant freaking nerd, ugh_ ) before pointing at his notebook with his other hand.

 

He’d written: “ _You’re awful and I hate you”._ in his skinny, looped handwriting at the top of his notebook.

 

Jae bit his lip against his grin, mindful of the teacher, before reaching for his own pen.

 

 _Same_. He wrote, adding a big, messy heart at the end.

 

Wonpil rolled his eyes, but underlined the heart, a slight flush to his cheeks. _Pay attention._

 

“You first.” Jae mouthed.

 

“Mr. Park?”

 

“Sorry!”


	2. Chapter 2

_ Jaehyung Park, I am so angry with you. _

__

_ I know Lord of the Rings is a classic, but I’ve been reading this book for a week and we are STILL trying to get out of the freaking Shire. I love the way that the Shire’s described, I can see it so clearly in my mind, but there’s only so many times I can read about leaves being described before I lose my freaking mind!!! We’re never going to get out of the Shire. _

__

_ I can’t remember who enacted this, “No talking about the book until we’re both finished, have exchanged notebooks, and read through those as well” rule, but I really want to blame you for the fact that I don’t have anyone to verbally vent to. We should have just stuck to yelling at each other the whole way through, even though it took twice as long to get through a book. _

__

_ As much as I’ve complained though, I really am enjoying the book. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the songs at first, but they’ve really grown on me. The way that all the Hobbits are always in each other’s business makes me think of Beacon Hills a little bit. It’s something in the way that they banter with each other. The loyalty that the other Hobbits show Frodo reminds me of the way all of you have stood by me in the past couple of years too. There’s no way that I would have made it through everything without all of you (I can already see you gagging as you read this, but it’s true). _

__

_ AND TOM BOMBADIL?? I have rarely been so baffled by a fictional character. _

__

_ This better be worth it. I had to get through 100+ pages to meet an elf. _

 

“Seriously?” Jae rolled over in bed to see his cousin staring at him, arms crossed over his chest. “It’s already 7:00 and you’re not even wearing pants yet?”

 

“Wonpil takes forever to get all his stuff together, we’ve got at least 20 minutes before he’s even going to text that we can come get him in another 10.” Jae stuck one of his bare arms out from beneath the covers. “Pass me my pants.”

 

Sungjin rolled his eyes, but tossed Jae the pair of light-wash jeans hanging over his computer chair. “I just don’t understand how you can sleep naked considering how many times we’ve had to run out for some emergency or another in the middle of the night.”

 

“I’m not naked,” Jae protested as he wiggled into his jeans, still under the covers. “I’m wearing underwear.”

 

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” Sungjin picked up Jae’s phone from the table. “Also, Brian wants his hoodie back. Whatever that means.”

 

“Oh my god, stop reading my texts.” Jae threw the covers back and puttered over to his closet where all his hoodies hung in a neat row. “Did he say which hoodie though? I’m pretty sure, like, three of these are his.”

 

“No idea, it just says ‘hoodie’.” Sungjin peered into the closet. “Wait, this is mine!”

 

“Ohhh…” Jae pulled the mustard coloured hoodie off the hanger. “I was wondering what I was thinking when I bought this. It makes me look all washed out and weird whenever I wear it.”

 

“I’ve been looking for this for a month!” Sungjin quickly flipped through some of Jae’s other clothes. “This isn’t your hat either!”

 

“Dowoon said I could borrow it!”

 

Sungjin turned to give Jae an unimpressed look, scathing words on the tip of his tongue, when his eyes all of a sudden turned as wide as saucers. “What the hell is that?!” He pointed directly to Jae’s chest.

 

“Dude, nipples. Literally everyone has them.” Jae rubbed his chest a little self-consciously. “Why, is there something weird about mine?”

 

“No, stupid, not those!” Sungjin pulled Jae in front of the full-length mirror in his room. “That! You already got a tattoo? I can’t believe you didn’t even tell me!”

 

Jae looked into the mirror to see a pair of deep, blue eyes staring back at him from the center of his chest. The eyes seemed familiar, framed by thick sliver lashes, and ringed by seven silver stars. “Oh.” He touched the mark and was surprised to find that it felt slightly raised, like a scar.

 

“How long have you even had this? It looks totally healed. Oh my god, Jaehyung Park, did you get this done illegally? Imo’s going to skin you alive when she sees this!”

 

“It’s not a tattoo.” Jae couldn’t stop staring at the mark in the mirror. “Holy shit, it was real.”

 

“What do you mean it’s not a tattoo?” Sungjin’s voice was rising in pitch and the crazed look in his eye was staring to make Jae anxious. “Are you trying to convince me that this just magically appeared on your body? Are you actually trying to get me to scream directly into your face?”

 

“No, I swear!” Jae held his hands up in surrender. “I met a goddess in a dream and she kissed me, so I guess this is the physical manifestation of that blessing she was talking about, and she promised she’d teach me how to channel my magic. So, I guess that stuff that Eric told me to huff actually worked.”

 

“Wait, what?”

 

Half an hour later, the two of them were piled into Jae’s Jeep, but Sungjin still wasn’t convinced about Jae’s new patron. “I can’t believe you didn’t bring this up earlier! Were you never going to tell us?”

 

Jae bit his lip. “I did the spell, nothing happened, so I went to bed and just assumed the plant Eric had me burn gave me some sort of weird fever-dream!”

 

“You’re unbelievable.” Sungjin was still scowling heavily by the time they pulled up to Wonpil’s driveway. “Jae, you don’t know anything about this woman, and you’ve bound yourself to her. For all you know, she could be some sort of chaotic evil being and you’ve let her straight up brand you. And it’s giant! How are you going to hide that from your mom?”

 

“I don’t walk around the house shirtless.”

 

“You sleep naked.”

 

“For the last time, I wear underwear, and my mom knocks!”

 

“I really hope you wear underwear,” Jae jumped as Wonpil climbed into the backseat. “I can’t understand people who go commando. I feel like the chaffing would be unbelievable.”

 

Jae knew that Wonpil could hear his heart pounding in his chest. “Stop doing that! You’re going to give me an actual heart attack!”

 

Wonpil titled his head to the side. “Nah, you’re fine.” He patted Jae’s chest with a grin. “Nice and strong. Your heart, I mean. You could stand to do a couple more pec exercises.”

 

“Hey! Not everyone gets bitten by supernatural creatures and develops six-packs overnight.”

 

“Dowoonie has a six-pack.” Wonpil noted as they pulled into Brian’s driveway. “He can move his pecs individually too, it’s weird.”

 

“I’ve seen that boy do three backflips from a standing position. You can’t compare us mere mortals to someone like that.”

 

“I’ve seen him do, like, 30 one handed pullups before.”

 

“I heard Dowoon Yoon got his first set of throwing knives at age eight.”

 

“I heard Dowoon Yoon got his parkour training in France.”

 

“I heard Dowoon Yoon once shot arrows with actual centaurs.”

 

“One time Dowoon Yoon punched me in the face.” Sungjin added with a grin. “It was awesome.”

 

Jae caught Sungjin’s gaze. He knew his cousin well and Sungjin could hold a grudge like there was money on the line.

 

 _We good?_ He mouthed when Wonpil looked out the window.

 

Sungjin’s face immediately went blank. _I’m going to kill you._ He mouthed back.

 

Jae winced, but nodded. Freaking Selune. When she said that she was going to give him her blessing, Jae’d assumed that it was going to be the type of blessing you’d feel within. Like a “Harry, it’s your not your scar but your mother’s love that protects you” type of blessing.

 

“Where are they?” Sungjin rolled down the window and stuck his head outside. “You texted them, right?”

 

“Yeah,” Jae glanced at the clock on his dashboard. “we’ve been here for five minutes. I’m doing something drastic. Pillie, cover your ears.”

 

Wonpil covered his ears just in time as Jae pressed down on the horn of his Jeep for a solid five seconds.

 

Wonpil smacked Jae in the shoulder the second the noise stopped. “You’re going to get us in trouble!”

 

“Dude!” Dowoon called, sprinting down the driveway. “Auntie looked like she was about to drive down to the station and file a noise complaint to your mother in person, she was so annoyed.”

 

“Well, I wouldn’t have had to honk like that if the two of you had just come out like you said you would! You’re holding us all up, we still need to set everything up for tonight.”

 

“Dowoon, you just left me with all the bags!” Brian was struggling to put his house keys in his pocket, had two backpacks slung over his shoulders, and was juggling their pillows and sleeping bags in his arms. “At least come and open the trunk for me.”

 

The youngest boy immediately rushed to help his boyfriend, apologizing all the while. “What took you guys so long?” Sungjin asked, “You’re the ones who said that you were ready for pick up!”

 

“We lost track of time,” Dowoon answered, shoving Wonpil when he made a face. “not like that! I put the leftover mountain ash somewhere in Brian’s house last month and we couldn’t find it.”

 

“Why are you pushing me!” Wonpil rammed his shoulder into Dowoon’s, pressing him against Brian, who whined and pushed back. “You can’t blame me for assuming. Brian’s shirt is on inside out!”

 

“What?” Brian felt the tag sticking out of the back of his shirt. “Dowoon, why didn’t you say anything?”

 

“I didn’t notice, I was too busy making sure Jae didn’t get his ass handed to him by Auntie. It’s not my fault you never get dressed until the last possible second!”

 

Jae reached to smack Sungjin in the arm without looking away from the road. “Why do you never yell at him for walking around naked?”

 

“Brian literally has a magical fire burning within his body. I’ve seen him make a, disgusting, grilled cheese sandwich by pressing it between his hands. You’re skin and bone, Jae; a stiff breeze could blow you over.”

 

“Rude!”

 

“My sandwich wasn’t gross!” Brian turned to Dowoon. “Tell Sungjin my sandwich wasn’t gross.”

 

“Uhhh…” Jae could see the tips of Dowoon’s ears turning red from the rear-view mirror. “I can’t really remember what it tasted like.”

 

Wonpil was sitting behind him and when he leaned forward, his breath tickled the back of Jae’s neck. “Whipped.”

 

“Stop distracting me while I’m driving,” Jae hissed, despite the grin spreading across his face. “I’m going to get into an accident, all of us squishies are going to die, and you’re going to feel guilty forever.”

 

“Sungjin and Brian are hardier than the average human, and I’m convinced Dowoonie’s pretty much made of rock considering how muscular he is. The only one really squishy is you, and I’m convinced I could bring you back to life.”

 

“We may live in a world of werewolves and magic, I think that death’s pretty fixed.”

 

“But I’ve got the secret weapon, Jae.” Wonpil leaned closer so Jae could see his grinning face out of his peripheral vision.

 

“Giving someone the bite doesn’t bring them back from the dead, Pillie.”

 

“Not that,” Wonpil seemed like he was turning a little bit red. “I’m taking about true love’s kiss.”

 

Jae groaned to cover his own rising blush. “Seriously, dude?”

 

Wonpil shrugged but sat back in his seat without further comment, face slightly flushed, a slight grin on his face. Jae could see Sungjin giving him a look from the corner of his eye, while Dowoon and Brian continued to squabble in the backseat.

 

When they reached the cabin, Jae busied himself with putting up the mountain ash circle around the property while the others set up the cabin itself for the five of them that night. Apparently, Sungjin hadn’t felt the need to keep quiet about Jae’s new, powerful friend because the second Jae returned from his romp in the woods, he was assaulted by questions.

 

“Dude, seriously?” Brian looked absolutely furious. “I can’t believe you, did you learn nothing from Golden Compass? Don’t trust the pretty lady who randomly shows up to solve all of your problems!”

 

“Can we see the mark?”

 

“Pil, stop trying to get Jae shirtless and focus here!”

 

Wonpil shot Brian a genuinely irritated look. “I am focused. You guys are right, we don’t know why this woman came to Jae and we don’t know that she doesn’t have some sort of ill intent, but I trust Jae and I believe him if he says that he trusts her.”

 

“Considering she didn’t ask Jae for any sort of blood oath, I feel like we’re relatively safe on the evil deity front.” Dowoon added thoughtfully, “All the things Jae promised are pretty benign.”

 

Sungjin rolled his eyes. “Did Eric say anything about Selune yet?”

 

“Yep,” Dowoon pulled out his phone. “he said, and I quote, ‘She’s cool. Shouldn’t be a problem.’”

 

“Seriously, that’s it?” Sungjin cried.

 

“Be glad he replied at all. Eric really isn’t much of a texter.”

 

“So, does that mean you guys are going to get off my ass about this?” Jae asked, flopping onto the large sectional in the living room. “Honestly guy, you’ve just gotta trust me. I have a good feeling about her.”

 

“I really hope it isn’t just because you kissed her.” Sungjin said with a sigh, sitting down next to Jae.

 

“Sun’s going down, I’m going into the basement to change.” Wonpil proclaimed, stomping down into the basement.

 

Jae glared at Sungjin, as Dowoon and Brian flopped down on the sectional next to them. “Seriously? You had to go and bring that up?”

 

“I’m not sorry, this is your own fault.” Sungjin answered, turning on the TV and flipping through channels. “You’re the one who kissed him then ran away like you were the one on fire. And I know that you didn’t want to get into anything right after our whole joined traumatic experience, but its been months. He keeps trying to reach out to you, and you keep pretending like none of it’s happening, and it isn’t fair to either of you.”

 

“Do we really have to do this _right now_?” Jae gestured furiously to the basement. “Can’t we talk about this later?”

 

Sungjin waved away Jae’s concerns. “The basement’s warded and soundproofed. That’s where my mom teaches me how to control the wailing.”

 

“Well, can we not do this with an audience?”

 

“I don’t mind.” Brian said placidly, “Pretend we’re not here.”

 

“It’s not like we wouldn’t bother you about this later on anyway.” Dowoon added, “You’re just saving time this way.”

 

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Jae struggled to control the involuntary twitch of his lips. “This conversation’s over.”

 

“Jae, please,” Sungjin leaned closer to Jae, forcing eye-contact. “I’m not trying to butt into something that isn’t my business-”

 

“Well, that’s what you’re doing.”

 

“- but the tension’s getting unbearable. You can’t just keep pretending none of it’s happening.”

 

Jae bit his lip. “Pil’s an Alpha. The supernatural are naturally drawn to him and everyone wants a taste of that power. I’ll just be a liability, a weak spot, with the way I am now.”

 

“At least talk to him,” Brian urged, “tell him how you feel. He’s blowing up my phone every single time the two of you have a weird interaction.”

 

“I can’t, you know how stubborn he is. If I so much as acknowledge it, he won’t let up until I say yes.”

 

“Then keep telling him no.” Dowoon suggested.

 

“I’m too weak for him.” Jae groaned flopping back into the cushions. “You know I can’t say ‘no’ to Pil. He gets all stony, sad, and quiet and I feel like I have to do everything within my power to make him feel better.”

 

“And you guys say that I’m whipped.” Dowoon laughed.

 

Brian waved his phone in the air. “Not that Jae’s love life isn’t interesting, but did you guys see BPD’s Twitter update? There’s another person missing from the elders’ home.” Jae shot Brian a grateful look. “That's the second one this month.”

 

“Elder’s rebellion.” Dowoon said, “Like teenage rebellion, but you know, the elderly. Elders gone wild.”

 

“Babe, no!” Brian winced. “That really doesn’t mean what you think it means. Gone wild is a porn thing.” Dowoon's face turned bright red.

 

“Dowoon Yoon, the last pure soul in this world.” Sungjin said, wonder in his voice. “You’re on Reddit, how have you remained untainted?”

 

“I never took the content filter off.” Dowoon admitted, “I just want to be able to use my app in public without worrying about being randomly assaulted by breasts.”

 

“I’ve literally never had that problem before.” Jae said.

 

“Yeah, no, are you serious?” Brian said, “Last time we went to the beach, there was that one blonde girl who faked drowning so you’d go over and save her.”

 

“I keep telling you, she was trying to get _your_ attention!” Jae insisted, “I wasn’t even looking in her direction, I was trying to get sunscreen on my back.”

 

Brian laughed. “I remember, Dowoon drew a dick on your back with the spray. And she wasn’t trying to get my attention, I went over to help and she swam back to shore before I even got within a foot of her.”

 

“No way, your hair was all silvery and long. We called you Thirst Trap for, like, a month.”

 

“Ugh, I miss it. I should have kept it silver.”

 

Dowoon smiled, pulling at a strand of Brian’s black hair. “You look good no matter what colour your hair is.”

 

Jae mimed throwing up in his hand. Brain tossed the couch pillow at him. A scratching noise came from the basement door.

 

Dowoon popped up from the couch. “I’ll let him out!”

 

A giant black blur bolted past Dowoon and jumped up on the couch, smothering both Sungjin and Jae in the process.

 

“Ugh, Pil, no!” Sungjin groaned, “We’re going to have to vacuum the couch again!”

 

Jae spluttered around the mouthful of fur as Wonpil buried his wet nose in his neck. “You’re crushing my ribs, you mangy beast.”

 

Wonpil jumped off the couch, shooting both teenagers a wounded look, before dramatically padding back to Dowoon with a flip of his tail. Dowoon immediately knelt to rub behind the werewolf’s ears. His tail thumped rhythmically against the floor and Jae couldn’t help but grin at Wonpil’s unbridled enthusiasm. From the very beginning, Wonpil had taken to his forced transformation with positivity and a type of grace that Jae couldn’t help but admire. He’d had his dark moments, but never taken out his frustration on anyone else. There had been moments of fear that Wonpil would leave them, make a proper werewolf pack, but he’d been perfectly content with their little ragtag group of misfits.

 

Wonpil padded over to the door of the cabin, tail still wagging eagerly. “I think somebody’s ready for a run.” Brian shrugged off his jacket as Jae pulled on his own. “We ready?”

 

Sungjin stood up, spine popping as he stretched his arms over his head. “If you’re going to chase the small, furry things try your best not to catch any of them this time. I know it’s instinct to bring them back, but Jae almost fainted last time you dropped that squirrel in his lap.”

 

Wonpil woofed and nudged Jae’s knee. “Don’t worry about it, Pil. Just no more rodents.” He ruffled Wonpil’s ears.

 

The door opened and Wonpil and Dowoon bolted out into the night, everyone else following close behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BPD Twitter = Beacon Hill's Police Department
> 
> I’ve got a [Twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/everywinter1) now because this is what the cool kids do? There’s nothing in it, but feel free to come say hi!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for me to update this! Hope you enjoy.

Jae got back home Saturday afternoon dirty, sweaty, and utterly exhausted from running around in the woods with his friends all night. He threw open the door and called out a greeting to his mother before realizing the house was empty. There was a note on the fridge that she’d gone in to work and Jae had a moment of confusion before remembering the elderly man who had gone missing the night before.

 

 _I’m so sorry, Jae._ The note read, _I probably won’t be home in time for a movie tonight either. I’m not going to give you any details, but they’ve found the body of the woman who went missing. There’s leftovers in the fridge. Love, Mom._

 

He sighed, tossing the note into the recycling bin. There was a pretty good chance that he wouldn’t be seeing his mother for the rest of the weekend, and while that wasn’t especially uncommon, he did feel a little strange considering the lack of time they’d had together lately.

 

Having the entire house to himself for the weekend, Jae did what any typical 18 year old boy would have done and ran a bath, promptly falling asleep in the warm water.

 

When Jae opened his eyes, he was in the same glade as before, floating in the pond this time. Selune was laying on her stomach in the grass, chin resting on her hands, thoughtfully watching Jae float across the water.

 

“Woah!” Jae felt himself sink as he flailed, but relaxed when he felt his feet easily touch the bottom. “Way to surprise a guy! Are you just going to show up every time I have a dream now?”

 

Selune shrugged, pulling off her dress and unabashedly diving into the water and swimming up next to Jae. “No, but we’re just getting started and I wanted to keep a closer eye on you until we got used to each other.”

 

“I’m not a puppy, I don’t need to be constantly supervised.” He grumbled, making a conscious effort to keep his eyes above the water.

 

“You’re almost like a puppy.” Selune grinned, ruffling Jae’s wet hair. “I’m ready to start teaching you some tricks if you’re ready to learn.”

 

Jae smiled back. “Totally ready. Do I have to be naked for it though?”

 

She gave him a strange sort of look. “It’s your dream, do whatever you want.”

 

The next second, the two of them were back in the clearing again, fully clothed, the grass soft under Jae’s bare feet. “Like your friend told you before, your spark’s powerful raw energy, so you’ll need something to channel it into something more manageable.” Selune pulled a sword out of the air, handing it to Jae. “You’ll need a proper weapon, so we should get started.” As it often was in dreams, time didn’t seem to work the way it did in real life. Jae felt as though he was with Selune for days, cycling through different types of weapons. “I think a polearm would be good for you.” She’d said, studying his frame appraisingly. “You can improve your overall muscle tone too.”

 

Jae nodded along, despite not understanding a word out of her mouth, holding each unfamiliar weapon Selune handed him before tutting and pulling it away and replacing it with another. He felt a little like Harry Potter in Ollivander’s shop. Honestly, every polearm thrust at him looked, and felt about the same, and he’d become tired of swinging them around by the time Selune handed him the fifth one.

 

“What are we looking for here?” He asked, handing one back that had a series of jangling rings around the base of the blade. “I honestly can’t tell the difference between any of these anyway.”

 

She stuffed another polearm, one with something axe-shaped at the end, into Jae’s hands. “We’ll know it when we see it, trust me.”

 

They continued on in silence for another couple minutes, Selune muttering to herself as she conjured weapon after weapon from the air, before Jae understood what she’d meant. The polearm didn’t look any different from any of the other dozens that Jae had held before, but the second it touched his hands, the blade took on the form of blazing moonlight.

 

Jae screamed, and clutched one of his hands to his pounding heart, still gripping the glowing polearm tightly. “You couldn’t have just said it’ll start glowing like a freaking lightbulb?” Selune just laughed. “Now what? I don’t know how to use this.”

 

Selune wiped the corner of her eyes with a hand, still chuckling to herself. “It’s called a guandao, slashing movements are the way to go when it comes to these. You don’t have to worry about that. It’s your weapon, so you’ll inherently be proficient with it.” She said, as Jae stepped back and took a couple of experimental swings. “It doesn’t mean you don’t have to practice though. I’ve given you the means, but it’s useless if your body can’t keep up.”

 

“Who am I going to practice with?” The guandao felt strange in his hands, but his body seemed to know exactly how to move to keep the momentum going for Jae to execute a series of spinning cuts through the air. “I don’t want to accidentally lob off someone’s arm with this thing.”

 

“It’s magic, Jae.” Selune walked over and placed her hands over his. “If you don’t want it to hurt someone, it won’t. Touch the blade.” Jae hesitantly did as he was told and pulled back his hand with a ‘ouch!’ when it gave him a zap that felt similar to a powerful static shock. His hand passed through the blade unharmed. “Remember that feeling and when you’re training with your friends, it won’t actually hurt them. It drains the energy out of humans instead of causing physical wounds as well. It’s dark entities that really feel its sting.”

 

“That’s so freaking cool.” Jae passed his hand through it, watching the blade flicker. “Not that I’m not super grateful, but where am I going to hide this thing? It’s taller than I am.”

 

Selune gave Jae a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t worry about it, your phone’s ringing.”

 

Jae woke up with a gasp, splashing tepid water out of the bathtub as he scrambled for his ringing cellphone. “Hello?”

 

“Hey, I’m bored,” Brian’s voice came out too loud over the phone speaker. “can I come over?”

 

“Don’t you have a boyfriend to bother now?”

 

“Last time I watched America’s Next Top Model without you, you wouldn’t talk to me for three days.”

 

“It’s _our thing_ , Brian! And you watched four whole episodes on your own!”

 

“Ugh, I’m just going to take that as a ‘yes’. I’m walking over right now, I’ll see you in a bit.”

 

Brian hung up without waiting for Jae to say goodbye. He pulled himself out of the bathtub, and scrambled into his bedroom to pull on clean clothes. Just as he was pulling his t-shirt over his head, Jae heard the doorbell ring. He bolted down the stairs and swung the door open in time for Brian to stumble in.

 

“Dude, you’ve gotta dry your hair or you’re going to get sick.” Brian wrinkled his nose, following Jae up the stairs to his room.

 

“Okay, first of all, that’s not how it works. Second of all, when did you turn into Sungjin Park?”

 

He rolled his eyes, tossing a package of sour candies at Jae before flopping onto his bed. Jae settled down next to Brian, laptop balanced across both of their legs. As unwilling as he was to admit it, Jae had really missed the undisturbed chunks of alone time he and Brian used to have together. Ever since their almost breakup, Dowoon and Brian had almost been joined at the hip, and as much as he loved Dowoon, it just wasn’t the same as having Brian to himself.

 

The two of them were watching one of the girls scream about how everyone’s so mean to her and everyone in the house is a crazy bitch when Brian grabbed Jae’s arm as he reached for some of the Doritos. “Dude, seriously, another one?”

 

Jae followed Brian’s gaze down to his the guandao etched in thin silver lines on his left forearm. “Aw, shit. No more short sleeves, I guess.”

 

“What does this one do?” Brian asked, poking it dubiously.

 

“Selune gave me this magical weapon and when I asked her where I’d keep it, she told me not to worry about it and the next thing I knew, bam. New bad-ass tattoo.” Jae flexed his arm. “No idea how I’m supposed to make it appear though.”

 

The next half an hour consisted of Jae striking silly poses while Brian lounged on his bed, shooting off insults and suggestions.

 

“Do you think this is how Toby Maguire’s Spiderman felt when he was trying to get the web to come out?” Brian asked as Jae gave a pirouette.

 

“Maybe. At least he didn’t have to deal with the running commentary.” Jae struck a final pose and flopped back onto the bed with Brian. “I give up, I’ll just ask her next time I see her.”

 

“You’re a hot mess. Minus the hot.”

 

“Thanks.” Brian’s phone vibrated on the bed and Jae shot him a dirty look when he immediately picked it up and responded. “Seriously? During bro-time? Can’t Dowoon wait an hour?”

 

“It’s my mom.” Brian said, fingers flying across the screen. “She wanted to know if I’ve seen Jongdae. Apparently he didn’t come home this morning and none of his friends know where he is either.”

 

“Woah, that sounds serious.” Jae rolled over to read the texts over Brian’s shoulder. No wonder his mom still hadn’t come home. “I hope everything’s okay. Maybe it’ll just be like that time he and Yeollie went hiking and forgot their garbage so they went all the way back to get it.”

 

“Yeah, that’s what everyone else assumed too, but Chanyeol says he hasn’t seen him since after school on Friday.” Brian glanced back at Jae. “Mom doesn’t want me walking home alone, can I just stay over tonight?”

 

“Of course, mi casa es su casa.”

 

Brian used to stay over enough that he had a toothbrush in their bathroom and Jae wore his clothes baggy enough that his clothes fit Brian well enough for pajamas. Jae came back from brushing his own teeth to see Brian face-timing Dowoon.

 

“Oh, Jae’s back. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, babe.”

 

Jae stuck his head into the frame and gave Dowoon a wave. “Want me to come pick you up tomorrow morning too? We have to swing by Brian’s to grab his school stuff anyway.”

 

“That’d be great, thanks.” Dowoon looked uneasy. “Jae, do you still have those hex-bags that Jimin made you to put around the house?”

 

Jae nodded. “Of course, I’m not stupid.”

 

“Okay, if you can, maybe try and sneak one into your mom’s jacket or something too.”

 

“Wait, what?” Jae moved closer to Brain on the bed. “Do you think this is a supernatural issue?”

 

Dowoon shrugged. “I really don’t know, but Kevin told my parents that they found the second missing person too. Official cause of death for both of them was suicide, one deep cut across the throat, and Kevin said it seemed almost ritualistic.”

 

Jae nodded and left the room with the excuse of finding his phone. He had individual components to make a hex-bag, and he’d hopefully be able to sneak it into the lining of his mom’s winter jacket, but he was horrible at sewing and there’s no way she wouldn’t notice Jae’s handy-work.

 

“Do you know how to sew?” Jae asked as he crawled into bed next to Brian. “I have all the stuff for the hex bag, but it’ll be easier to hide if I just put the ingredients into the lining of her jacket, but I don’t know how to sew it back up after.”

 

Brian shook his head. “No, but Pillie does. He sews all the patches onto my jean jacket for me.”

 

Jae groaned and buried his face into his pillow. “Everything always comes back to Wonpil.”

 

“You do realize all of this awkward tension would disappear if you’d just talk to him, right?”

 

“I already told you, I can’t,” Jae peaked out of his pillow to look at Brian. “I’ll bring it up when the time’s right, when I’m stronger.”

 

Brian rolled his eyes. “Well, Sungjin might know how, but Wonpil’s still your best bet.”

 

“Am I being really unreasonable about this?” Jae asked, “I know there’s an easy solution, but I don’t want to ask him to wait and I can’t outright reject or accept him either.”

 

“I don’t think I’m a good person to ask for relationship advice.” Brian said, “I’ve never been with anyone but Dowoon and you saw firsthand what a mess it turned into. Even though I can understand why Dowoon didn’t tell me, I wish that he’d been honest with me from the beginning though.”

 

Their conversation was interrupted by Jae’s phone buzzing furiously from the nightstand. The caller ID showed an old, unflattering picture of Wonpil, hair a mess, eyes tiny behind his glasses, and blinking blearily at the phone camera.

 

Jae picked up and before he could say anything, Wonpil’s voice came through steady, but concerned. “I need you to drive me over to school.”

 

“Uh, hello to you too?” Jae shrugged at Brian’s confused expression. “Why do you need to get to school at 10:30 on a Sunday night?”

 

“Sungjin called me. He went out with Atom for a walk and the next thing he knew, he’d gone all the way to the school.”

 

Jae furrowed his brow. “Okay, that’s weird, but why doesn’t he just walk home and why'd he call you when I'm the one with a car?”

 

“Well, I’m the Alpha,” Jae rolled his eyes fondly. “and he felt like he might need a little backup considering he found a dead body.”

 

“Oh.” Jae felt himself pale. “Brian’s with me, we’ll be there in ten.”

 

“I told Dowoon to meet me at my house, we should all go together.”

 

Jae hung up and stared at his phone for a couple seconds before turning to Brian. “You should get dressed.”

 

Brian groaned, but rolled out of bed anyway. “I hate Sundays.”

 

By the time the four of them made it to the field behind the school, Sungjin (dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt) was shivering from the spring chill. Jae tossed him the blanket from the back of his jeep and he gratefully wrapped it around himself, Atom trotting over to Dowoon, tail wagging furiously, completely oblivious to the dead body 30 feet away.

 

“Holy shit.” Jae fought down his queasiness and grabbed onto Brian for support. “Oh my god, that is a lot of blood.”

 

Dowoon picked Atom up and passed the yorkie to Jae. He craned his head to get a better look, but didn’t go any closer to the body. “Looks like the old man who went missing before. Same cause of death too.”

 

“Did you call the cops yet?” Wonpil asked.

 

Sungjin shook his head. “Was I supposed to?”

 

“Yes!” Jae hissed incredulously, “You find a dead body, you call the cops!”

 

"You said to call everyone if anything weird happened!"

 

"Not before you called the cops!"

 

“Well, how am I supposed to explain how I found said dead body!” He snapped back, “Oh, nice to see you Imo, thanks for coming so late in the night, it’s a little complicated and hard to explain, but long story short, I have the ability to commune with the dead, a pretty new development, and I can’t control it so well yet so sometimes I end up being called to the sight of death.”

 

“Just say that you lost track of where you were going while you were walking the dog!” Jae shrugged off his hoddie and tossed it to his cousin, taking the blanket back. “Listen, we have to leave, we can’t all be here when my mom shows up.”

 

Brian put up his hand. “I definitely can’t be here.”

 

“I probably shouldn’t be either.” Jae said, “Dowoon should stay, he can get backup from Kevin, Wonpil can come home with us.”

 

“I’ve got all my school stuff in my backpack already,” Wonpil said patting his bag. “I assumed this might happen.”

 

“Alright, Sungjinnie calls the cops, we had back to Jae’s and we can all reconvene during our spare at school.”

 

A goofy smile spread over Dowoon’s face as Brian spoke. “You’re so hot when you’re all authoritative and stuff.” Brian grinned back and pulled his boyfriend into a kiss.

 

“Ugh, can the two of you not do this in front of the dead body!” The two immediately pulled away, sheepishly muttering sorry as Wonpil scowled at them. “It’s a good thing we’re separating the two of you.”

 

Sungjin rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Okay, you guys need to leave so I can call the cops.”

 

Jae gave Sungjin a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, Brian doing the same, and Wonpil forced him into a hug before the three of them piled back into Jae’s jeep. The three of them trudged back into the Park house, and Brian fell onto the couch, pulling one of the blankets around him.

 

“I’m not going back upstairs, I can’t move anymore. I’m exhausted.”

 

Before Jae could respond, Brian had already begun to snore. He looked at Wonpil who was biting his lip, trying his best to keep from laughing out loud. “Guess we’re sharing the bed.”

 

Wonpil pulled off his hoodie and jeans, crawling into the bed in just his boxers. Jae wanted to make a joke about how the thing about werewolves being hairy was obviously true, but his mouth felt weirdly dry. “Dude, we’re sharing a bed, is the nudity really necessary?”

 

“I run hotter than the average human now, I can’t sleep with clothes on.” Wonpil patted the bed next to him. “Come on, I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

 

Jae pulled off his sweatpants and lay down in the bed next to Wonpil. “That’s a damn lie and you know it. You’re like a freaking octopus in your sleep.”

 

“You’ve never complained before.” Wonpil pouted.

 

Jae rolled his eyes and pulled the covers tighter around himself. “I’m not complaining, per say, I’m just saying.”

 

Wonpil held a hand to his heart seriously. “No funny business, I promise.”

 

“Sure, whatever.” Jae said, “Just to let you know, I might still sleep talk.”

 

“It’s fine, I fall asleep easily.” His eyes were slowly sliding shut and he covered his mouth as he yawned. “Good night, Jae.”

 

“Night, Pillie.”

 

Jae woke up from his dreamless sleep the next morning, almost uncomfortably warm, with Wonpil stuck to him like a barnacle. His face was buried in the crook of Jae’s neck and Jae desperately hoped that Wonpil couldn’t feel his involuntary morning erection pressed against his leg. His quickly flipped around to turn his alarm off.

 

“No…” Wonpil buried his face into the back of Jae’s neck. “It’s too early.”

 

“Pil, let go, I’ve gotta get up and shower.”

 

The grip around his waist tightened. “You smell fine, we don’t have to be at school until 9:00, it takes less than 10 minutes to get there, just give me 10 more minutes.”

 

Jae sighed and settled back into the bed. No one needed to know. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lydia has a dog, so I felt like Sungjin should have a dog too. And I love guys with dogs in general, but guys with little dogs just makes me melt.
> 
> I love America's Next Top Model and I'm not ashamed. Those ladies (and gentlemen) fucking work. 
> 
> Feel free to come say hi! Unlike Pillie, I don't bite. [Twitter](https://twitter.com/everywinter1)/[Tumblr](https://everywinter.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains the depiction of a dead body. It isn't especially graphic, but it is there.

_I always forget how… unsympathetic Boromir seems in the books. He’s given more humanizing moments in the movies (the fact that he’s Sean Bean probably helps too) and you get to see a gentler, more desperate side to him that you don’t see in the books. Especially when it comes to his relationship with Merry and Pippin. ~~It makes me think of my dad a little bit.~~_

_Anyway, I know how you are about going into the books ‘untainted’ so it’s probably a good thing that you’re reading them first. I haven’t watched the movies in years and I still envision parts of the book the way it was shown on film. We actually can’t watch the first movie until you’re at least one chapter into the second book though. There’s a spoiler (but I feel like the way the movie divided the story between 1 and 2 flowed better anyway) and I also know how you feel about those._

_I wasn’t sure if you knew, but Lord of the Rings was actually written as 1 big book. They just cut it into 3. If I wanted to be difficult, I could probably argue that we should go through all 3 of them and still count it as my 1 book, but I’m not that much of an asshole._

_I hope you’re enjoying them though. I know we have enough chaos, fighting, and magic in our lives, but somehow seeing the heroes triumph in fiction makes it feel like we’ll be okay too. Don’t tell anyone I said that, or I swear to god, I’ll sprinkle powdered wolf’s bane into your underwear drawer._

 

“So,” Wonpil asked, all but vibrating in his chair. “what happened?”

 

The five of them sat at their usual cafeteria table, Sungjin looking a little more tired than usual. “Well, Imo wasn’t happy to see that Dowoon and I had found a dead body, but it wasn’t as though we’d done it intentionally. Honestly, they sent us home pretty quick, so we didn’t get to hear much of anything.”

 

“Thankfully, Kevin sent my parents a synopsis after he got home that night and I sent myself a copy of the email.” Dowoon pulled out his phone and passed it around to the others. "Dad doesn't know how to change the password on his iPad."

 

“Jesus,” Brian’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. “murder?”

 

Dowoon nodded. “The cuts across the neck weren’t consistent with suicide. They’re going to enforce a curfew tonight.”

 

Wonpil groaned and slumped back in his chair. “This is crazy.” He pressed his palms against his eyes. “Why can’t we just have one normal school year?”

 

“I blame you.” He said, dodging Wonpil’s half-hearted swat. “If you hadn’t gotten bitten by that werewolf, this never would have happened.”

 

“Brian would still be a kumiho, Dowoon would still be a hunter, Sungjin would still be a banshee, and our lives still would have been completely insane.” Wonpil protested, looking slightly hurt. “You can’t pin this on me, especially when I wasn’t exactly bitten by choice.”

 

Jae winced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” He put a hand on Wonpil’s knee. “I shouldn’t have joked about it.”

 

“It’s fine.” Wonpil patted his hand. “I’m not really hurt, all this just makes me really anxious.”

 

“No one’s heard anything about Jongdae either.” Sungjin added, chewing his thumb. “I had banshee dreams all night, but I can’t remember any of them. My mom said she could hear me tossing and turning in my sleep.”

 

“We should all stick together until all this clears up.” Dowoon said, “Nobody goes anywhere alone.”

 

They all nodded and a sober air clung to the rest of their spare period. They’d survived some pretty terrifying things in the past, but it had always felt one step removed. With Jongdae’s disappearance, it felt more real. He was a kid too, they were in the same English class, and the appearance of the newest body didn’t bode well.

 

Everyone piled into Jae’s car went back to his house, since his mom had texted that she wouldn’t be home that night.

 

“Does _everyone_ have to come?” Jae demanded, watching all his friends squish into the backseat as Wonpil beamed at him from the passenger side. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to be okay as long as I stay inside the house.”

 

“Better safe than sorry.” Wonpil plugged the auxiliary cord into his phone. “We should pick up some food before we get to your house.”

 

“You’re all staying for dinner too?”

 

“We might as well just all stay over.” Sungjin said, thumbs flying over the screen of his phone. “My parents said it was okay as long as we all made it to school tomorrow.”

 

“I actually have to study,” Brian added, “there’s the geography quiz tomorrow and I’m going to be the next dead body if I fail it.”

 

“Brian!” Sungjin actually looked offended. “People are dead!”

 

“I know, I know.” Brian groaned, burying his face into Dowoon’s shoulder. “It’s bad, I know I shouldn’t, but I blame Jae! His morbid sense of humor is rubbing off on me.”

 

“It’s not my fault you can’t develop better coping mechanisms.” Jae shot back, “Do we want to cook something, or buy take out?”

 

“Cook.” Dowoon said, the exact same time Sungjin said, “Take out.”

 

“I swear to god, I will turn this car around!” Jae glared at the two of them through the rear-view mirror. “Wonpil, do you want to cook, or get take out?”

 

“Take out!”

 

“That’s not fair, you always let Pillie pick!” Dowoon whined.

 

“You’re in my car, going to my house, my rules!”

 

“It's because I’m Jae’s favourite.” Wonpil gloated, “Can we get McDonald’s?”

 

Sungjin rolled his eyes and leaned over to whisper something into Brian’s ear, which caused him to burst into laughter. Jae bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from frowning. He could say ‘no’. He could say he changed his mind and demand that they all go to get groceries and make something instead.

 

“Jaehyung, chicken nuggets?” Wonpil batted at his arm gently, eyes wide _._ “Please?”

 

_Fuck._

 

He may have been coerced into buying Wonpil an ice cream as well. His wallet felt like it was screaming, but when Wonpil held out a spoonful of McFlurry for him to taste, Jae couldn’t really muster any sort of resentment.

 

The five of them dragged Jae’s mattress and all of the sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows in the house down into the living room. Dowoon insisted on a pillow fort, and they all piled inside. Sungjin, who’d finished his homework during lunch because he was a freak like that, immediately fell asleep. Brian studied for all of an hour, then declared he deserved a break and was out like a light next to him. Dowoon lay in the middle, leaving Wonpil to curl next to Jae who was perched on the edge. The TV played some old episode of Friends softly in the background.

 

“Don’t you have homework?” He asked, trying his best to keep his heartbeat even with Wonpil all but pressed against him.

 

“No,” Wonpil answered easily, flipping around to look him in the face. “I finished all the reading for biology and worked ahead in the physics book already.”

 

“What about the English essay?”

 

“That’s not due until next Friday, so it’s tomorrow’s problem.”

 

“Rebel.”

 

The sun had slowly been making its way down the sky and Wonpil’s face was bathed in the orange light filtered through the blankets. His hair was messy and there was the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow creeping up his jaw. Jae had been endlessly jealous when Wonpil had come to school at the tender age of 12 to tell them all that his father had taught him to shave the night before. He’d always been the hairiest of the five of them, it made for really good werewolf jokes, but with the two of them so close together, all Jae could think about was the rasp of stubble against his own face when Wonpil had kissed him in the forest. He bit his lip.

 

“Stop that,” Wonpil whispered, “or I’m going to want to bite you too.”

 

An exaggerated gagging noise came from the other side of the fort. “I’m still awake, you know!” Dowoon’s head popped up, glaring at the two of them furiously. “I should sue, you’re causing me emotional distress.”

 

“Your face causes me emotional distress.” Wonpil said, elbowing him gently.

 

Of course, it dissolved into a tussle that woke the other two and the next thing Jae knew, the fort was falling down around them. They didn’t bother re-building the fort, and instead all just curled onto the blankets together. Somehow, the topic ended up on Jae’s newest tattoo.

 

“Seriously, another one?” Sungjin groaned after inspecting Jae’s arm. “At least this one’s more subtle.”

 

“Have you been able to get the weapon to manifest yet?” Dowoon asked, poking the mark curiously. “This thing looks bad-ass, and I really want to see how proficient ‘inherently proficient’ means.”

 

Jae shrugged. “I’ve tried, but I couldn’t get it to come out.” Brian snickered and Jae reached over to punch him in the shoulder. “Shut the fuck up.”

 

“Maybe try a mental sort of exercise instead? Sit cross legged and close your eyes.” Sungjin said.

 

He followed instructions, making himself comfortable on the pile of blankets. “Should I chant or something?”

 

“No, stupid.” Jae couldn’t see his face, but he was sure Sungjin was rolling his eyes. “Hold your hands out flat in front of you and imagine the weapon in your hands. Feel the weight of it, the material of the handle…”

 

Sungjin’s voice turned into a dull buzz in the background. Somehow, Jae could feel the grass from the glade in his dreams under his bare feet, the gentle air brushing against his face. The brush of Selune’s cool hand against his cheek. The weapon appeared in his hands almost instantaneously and he opened his eyes as the smile grew on his face.

 

“Guys I did it!” He jumped to his feet and spun the weapon around. Brian screamed and Dowoon burst into laughter at the look on his boyfriend's face. “Look at it, it glows! So cool, right?”

 

“Pretty fucking cool.” Wonpil’s eyes were wide. “Can we touch it?”

 

“Yep!” Jae passed the guandao over, and the glow instantly disappeared from it. Wonpil’s hands dropped under the weight.

 

“Woah, take it back, take it back!” Jae immediately grabbed it. “That thing’s crazy heavy, how are you holding it up?”

 

“Hey, I may look skinny, but it’s all tightly chorded muscle!” Jae flexed with minimal effect. “Look at these guns.”

 

“Actually, they do look bigger than before.” Dowoon leaned forwards to squeeze Jae’s arm. “See, I told you all those training sessions with me would pay off. It’s only been a couple months and you’ve already got some obvious muscle definition.”

 

“Do you think I need to bulk up more?”

 

“Nah,” Dowoon pinched him gently. “we can test how skilled you are with this thing later on, but I think we should keep on building your endurance. Good thing we’ve been working on that already. Now, instead of running away, we can focus on engaging.”

 

“Am I going to have to fight you?” Jae asked, eyeing Dowoon’s arms warily.

 

Dowoon shook his head. “I’m more of a bow and arrow, sometimes daggers, type person. Seokjin’s the polearms expert.”

 

“Seriously?” Jae wanted to smack his head against the pillow. “He looks like he could break me in half; his shoulders are, like, double the size of my torso!”

 

“I feel like most everyone could break you in half.” Brian said, throwing an arm over Dowoon’s shoulders. “You keep talking about how you’re all muscle, but your chest is so flat we could probably play cards on you.”

 

“We’re not friends anymore.” He made a threatening motion towards Brian. “You’re lucky I haven’t learned how to shoot lasers out of this yet.”

 

“Wait, this thing can shoot lasers?” Wonpil made grabby-hands towards the guandao. “Let me try and hold it again!”

 

“So eager to get your hands on Jae’s weapon.” Dowoon sniggered, barely dodging an elbow to the head. “You would have made the same joke in my position!”

 

“There’s an easy one about positions in that sentence, but I’m not gonna reach for low hanging fruit.” Wonpil fiddled with the long, red strip of cloth on the blade of the guandao. “How do you make it go back?”

 

“I imagine I just have to envision it disappearing again.” Jae stood and twirled it dramatically. “Maybe I’ll just sleep with it tonight. Look how bad-ass this thing is.”

 

“If I can’t sleep with a dagger in the bed, he can’t have that!” Dowoon said, “Besides, there’s not enough room, just put it away.”

 

Jae held the guandao in front of him, leaning on it somewhat like a cane. It was easier this time, maybe because he had a firmer grasp of the magic coursing through his body, and it was gone in an instant, leaving Jae to fall face forward into Wonpil’s lap.

 

“Can’t say this is exactly how I imagined you falling for me, but I’ll take what I can get.” Wonpil grinned and helped Jae back into an upright position.

 

This time, Sungjin tossed the first pillow and the scuffle didn’t end until Dowoon jumped onto Wonpil’s back and was subsequently almost launched into the TV.

 

“I guess roughhousing is a little more dangerous with super strength.” Dowoon said absently, poking at the cut on his forehead with his fingers. “I’m pretty sure this doesn’t need stitches.”

 

“Stop touching it, do you know how dirty your hands are!” He pulled Dowoon’s hands away and blew on it instinctively, the way his mom always did for him. It slowly began to close itself up with his breath and within five seconds of Jae staring at in shock, the skin was smooth and the only thing left on Dowoon’s forehead was a smear of blood.

 

Brian broke the silence. “That was fucking wild.”

 

“That’s one way of putting it. Why didn’t you fix my hangnail when I told you it hurt like crazy this morning?” Sungjin demanded.

 

“I didn’t know I could!” Jae waved him over.

 

“Is there any way for you to fix it without blowing your spit all over me?”

 

Jae rolled his eyes. “Ungrateful.” He concentrated and it was, again, gone in an instant. “I wonder if I can fix anything more serious.”

 

“Let’s hope we never have to find out.” Brian said, curling back up into the blankets. “Why is it that Jae gets all the cool superpowers and I still sometimes set things on fire when I sneeze?”

 

“At least you’re a good cuddle buddy.” Dowoon said, pressing himself close to his boyfriend. “You’re always the prefect temperature.”

 

It was Jae’s turn to gag. “So, if you could tone down the PDA when you’re with all of us forever alone types, that’d be great.”

 

No one said anything, beyond Brian rolling his eyes and pulling Dowoon closer to him, but Wonpil give Jae a look that he really didn’t want to read into.

 

That night, when everyone was burrowed back under the covers and Jae was on the edge of sleep, Wonpil gently nudged him with his toe.

 

“Are we ever going to talk about it?” Jae could just make out the outline of Wonpil’s face in the dark, and he was speaking so quietly, he had to strain his ears to hear him clearly.

 

“I have no idea what you want to talk about?”

 

“Liar.” His heart was pounding and Wonpil could probably hear every beat. His voice sounded sad. “I know I shouldn’t have kissed you out of the blue like that, but I was just so overwhelmed. We've been dancing around each other for years and I just... acted.”

 

Jae didn’t know what to say.

 

“I don’t want to pressure you into giving me an answer before you’re ready, but please don’t act like nothing happened.”

 

“Do we have to talk about this right now?” Jae hissed, “You’re going to wake the others.”

 

“Well, you bolt like Satan himself is after you whenever I try and approach you normally, so I’m going to take what I can.” Wonpil’s hand felt like a brand on his forearm. “Did you really hate it that much?”

 

 _No,_ Jae wanted to say. _I didn’t hate it. I’ve never kissed anyone before, but I’d imagined kissing you thousands of times and it was better than anything I could have dreamed. I want you to kiss me again, and again, and again. I never want to stop kissing you._

 

“I didn’t hate it.” He said quietly, “I didn’t hate kissing you.”

 

It was obvious Wonpil was smiling, even in the dark. He felt Wonpil’s hand intertwine with his own. “Is this okay?”

 

“Yes,” His voice came out breathy and weak. “go to sleep, we have school in the morning.”

 

When morning came, he’d pretty much been pulled on top of Wonpil. His head rested easily on his chest and Brian was peering down at the two of them. The smell of coffee floated through the air.

 

“Sungjin’s in the shower.” Brian took a deep swig of his coffee. “He didn’t sleep well last night, so try not to irritate him.”

 

He was obviously looking at Wonpil who held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay! I’ll be on my best behaviour.”

 

“Good to know you made yourself at home.” Jae sat up and popped his spine. “Is there any of that for me?”

 

Dowoon walked in and passed Jae a glass of apple juice instead. “You don’t need caffeine. Do we have time to grab breakfast?”

 

“Just get something from the pantry.” Sungjin was rubbing one of Jae’s towels over his hair. There was a dazed sort of look in his eye. “I want to get to school early.”

 

“Class doesn’t start for another two hours-” Wonpil protested before he was silenced by Brian shaking his head furiously from behind Sungjin. “But that’s okay! I should probably do some more studying anyway.”

 

Sungjin nodded, but he didn’t really seem present. His cousin really didn’t do well without a full eight hours, but he was still uncharacteristically quiet the rest of the morning. Sungjin sat in the front seat, didn’t rise to take the bait when they teased Dowoon about his bed-head, or complain when Wonpil passed him what Jae knew was his least favourite type of granola bar.

 

Jae pulled into the parking lot and before he could even pull up the handbrake, Sungjin had let himself out of the car and swiftly making his way towards the soccer field.

 

“Fuck, this isn’t good.” Jae grabbed Sungjin’s backpack and hurried out after him. “I think he’s in a trance.”

 

“Some banshee thing?” Dowoon asked, “Should we try and snap him out of it?”

 

“No, just follow him; don’t let him wake up alone again.” He nodded to Wonpil when he took Sungjin’s backpack instead.

 

Sungjin was running towards the goalposts at a full sprint before he came to a dead stop right in the middle of the field. Wonpil made it to him next, and Jae saw him promptly grab Sungjin and pull him away from a lump on the ground. As Jae neared where his friends were standing, he noticed a figure lying in the grass. He had a familiar mop of light brown hair, and his eyes were wide and unseeing, staring at the sky. His bare knees were stained with grass where his denim shorts ended, one of his sneakers were missing, the socked foot bloody at the heel. The front of Jongdae’s pink hoodie was covered in dried, brown blood. Jae had the same hoodie sitting in his closet. He remembered because Jongdae told him his had been a gift from one of his friends. There was a little Garfield patch sewn onto the back of it, just where the hood met the body of the sweater.

 

He’d barely sprinted ten feet away before Jae was throwing up his breakfast into the grass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this update took so long. Thank you for your patience!!
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/everywinter1)/[Tumblr](https://everywinter.tumblr.com/)/[CC](https://curiouscat.me/everywinter)


	5. Chapter 5

Jae hadn’t been to a funeral since his dad died. He’d been 10 and crying so hard that he couldn’t really remember all of it. But he clearly remembered closing his eyes so he didn’t have to look at the body. Apparently, his face had remained unmarred by the car accident, but Jae hadn’t wanted to see his father like that. He wanted his last memories of his father to be of the two of them playing badminton at the gym, eating popsicles on the porch, watching him patiently pull his noona’s long hair into a ponytail, the two of them intentionally singing out of tune to annoy his mother.

 

Jongdae’s funeral was different. They dressed him in a neat, black turtleneck to cover the cut on his neck, and he looked sharp in his pinstripe blazer. The same one he’d worn to the winter dance last year. Whoever had styled his hair hadn’t done it quite right, and his bangs were stiff and strange against his forehead. It felt unnatural to see him so still. Jongdae was always laughing and shouting during discussions in class, performing his parts in their little skits with gusto. Jae really didn’t want to see Jongdae like this, but having his last memory be of him covered in blood in the middle of the soccer field was even worse. At least now, he looked more like he was sleeping.

 

“I just don’t understand why I didn’t realize.” Sungjin’s voice was flat and hollow as they watched the coffin slowly being lowered into the ground. “Mom told me I’d be able to predict the deaths, that’s what the dreams are for, I don’t understand why my dreams didn’t work.”

 

His eyes were rimmed red and dark bruises were under his eyes when he turned to look at Jae. “Why didn’t they work? What good am I, if all I can do is find the bodies?”

 

Jae didn’t know what to say, so he wrapped his arms around Sungjin and pulled him into a firm hug. It was a testament to just how wrecked Sungjin was that he just let himself be held.

 

That night, Selune came to him for the first time since they found Jongdae. The glade was as beautiful as always, and she looked like a painting come to life, legs floating on the surface of the lake, long hair flowing in the moonlight. It made Jae angry.

 

“Where have you been?” She started at him, face still serene, as Jae stomped over and loomed over her. “I’ve been calling for you all week, I needed you!”

 

“I had other things to attend to.” She patted the grass beside her. “Sit.

 

“I don’t want to sit! This is your fault!” He screamed, “Why didn’t you tell me that would happen? You told me you could see the future, why didn’t you tell me, so I could save him?”

 

“It doesn’t work that way. The future’s a constantly shifting thing, like the tides, and I can’t control everything.”

 

Something electric shifted in the air, a crack of thunder sounded somewhere in the distance, and frost crept along the grass, freezing Jae’s toes. Selune’s eyes were dark and the ice in them sent a shiver up Jae’s spine. “And I have been very lenient towards you, I can feel your pain, but you would do well to remember who I am.”

 

He paled and Selune’s mood was gone just as quickly. “Come here.” She patted the grass next to her again and he sat. Selune brought her face to his and pressed their foreheads together, her hand warm against the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about your friend. I saw what you tried to do for him, but I need you to remember that there are limits, even to magic. Don’t blame yourself.”

 

By the time Jae had finished crying, Selune’s own face was wet with tears. “I don’t understand what happened.” He was sniffling disgustingly, but she held him close anyway. “I tried to fix him, did you see? I couldn’t touch him because I know I had to preserve the crime scene, but I tried so hard.”

 

He’d pulled the magic from inside his body, done everything he could to will the cut closed, the blood back into Jongdae’s body, but nothing had happened. Jae tried and tried until he gave himself a nosebleed.

 

“Try as we might, we can’t bring back the dead.” She brushed the hair out of his face. “Remember what I told you in the beginning, you can’t lose yourself to this.”

 

Jae wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt. “Sungjin’s taking it really hard too. He feels responsible because he couldn’t predict it.”

 

Selune presses her lips together. “I have a feeling I know what, or rather who, is blocking his powers. My sister, Shar. Her domains involve death and trickery, and your cousin’s powers fall under her domain.”

 

“Shar.” The name felt strange on his lips. “You’re saying that she’s behind all this.”

 

“Maybe, like I said, she’s my sister, my polar opposite. Whatever I do, she does the opposite. I want order, she wants chaos.” Selune all of a sudden looked very tired. “I’m sorry, Jae, I’m worried that I painted this target on your back.”

 

Jae shook his head. “Something like this would have happened sooner or later. Beacon Hill’s a complete shit storm. Before this, it was a blood-thirsty alpha werewolf, before that it was a kanima. You’ve just given me a fighting chance.”

 

“I am sorry, Jae.” Her hand was warm in his. “I really wish there was more that I could do, but there’s only so much we’re allowed to interfere.”

 

“I get it. Your world, verse my world.” Jae put his hand over the brand on his chest. “Besides, you made a commitment to me too, and I’m going to hold you to that.”

 

“I promise. Shar favours demons, so anti-possession symbols for all the humans would be a good idea.” Her smile was more the moon than the sun, a cool hand touched Jae’s chest. “You’ll be okay though, you’re already mine.”

 

“I have no idea an anti-possession symbol looks like.”

 

“I know,” She laughed, “ask Dowoon. He needs one, and you should probably get one for your mom, but all your other friends should be okay.”

 

She blinked up at the night sky, tilted her head to the side. “I should let you go, I know you don’t have school today, but I think you have visitors. You should probably start locking your windows.”

 

Jae blinked into consciousness and almost screamed when he saw Brian and Dowoon sitting in his room. “Guys, what the hell?! How did you even get in here?”

 

“Through the window.” Brian said, spinning around in the computer chair. “Wonpil’s at Sungjin’s house and we agreed to all stick together. It’s more pertinent now than ever.”

 

“Has your mom come home at all?” Dowoon asked.

 

Jae shrugged. “Maybe? She’s always in and out before I actually get a glimpse of her. She’s left a couple notes on the fridge though.”

 

Dowoon crawled up beside Jae so he could lean against the headboard. “We haven’t been able to really meet up since last week.” He was obviously avoiding saying ‘since we found Jongdae’s body’ and Jae found that he was rather grateful for it. “We’re here for a ride.”

 

“At least you’re being honest.” Jae rolled his eyes and pulled his blanket up higher around himself. “What time did you say we’d be over there.”

 

“In 15 minutes.” Brian said, “So you should probably get going, get yourself all pretty for Pillie.”

 

“Heh, pretty for Pillie.” Dowoon chuckled, “Jae could probably show up in those pink sweatpants of yours and he’d still want to jump his bones though.”

 

“Hey, what’s wrong with my pants?” Brian grabbed Dowoon by the ankle and tickled his foot until he just narrowly avoided kicking Jae in the ribs in his bid to get away. “They were a gift!”

 

“From who?” Dowoon asked through his laughter. “It better have been someone important, or I’m going to have to begin questioning your judgement.”

 

Brian started tickling harder, and Jae rolled off the bed and crawled over to his closet to wiggle into a pair of joggers. “Can you guys not get all frisky in my damn bed when I’m still in it?”

 

“Is it okay now that you’re not in it?” Brian crawled over and fell on top of Dowoon, pinning him down with his body weight. Jae immediately pulled off one of Brian’s socks and lobbed it at his head. “Okay, sorry, sorry! Message received.”

 

Dowoon shoved Brian off of him, gasping for air. He glared at his boyfriend. “You’re awful and I hate you. I could have suffocated under you!”

 

“Are you calling me fat?”

 

“Nah, I know it’s all muscle.” Dowoon gave Brian’s chest a pat. “But seriously, I think we’re going to be late.”

 

“I’m hurrying!” Jae said, pulling a random hoodie out of his closet. “I just need socks, then we can go.”

 

“What’s the point if you’re just going to wear slippers anyway?”

 

Jae glared at Brian. “Do you want to walk over to Sungjin’s house?”

 

“You know it’s true.” Brain popped up off the bed and pointed at Jae’s closet. “Is that my hoodie?”

 

“Oh, yeah,” Jae tossed it in his direction. “I guess it is.”

 

“Why are you always stealing people’s clothes?” Brian pulled the hoodie on over his t-shirt. “It’s like your mom doesn’t give you an allowance to buy your own things.”

 

“Please,” He scoffed as they made their way to his car. “not like you don’t have a whole bunch of my stuff sitting in your closet! I know for a fact the last time I saw my leather jacket, you were wearing it.”

 

“I thought that was Sungjin’s jacket?” Dowoon said, “And it’s actually in my closet.”

 

Jae rolled his eyes. “Of course it is.”

 

Dowoon climbed into the front seat. “Have you had any luck contacting Selune?”

 

“I have.” Jae glanced at Dowoon. “Do you know what an anti-possession symbol is?”

 

“Even if I didn’t know, I feel like the name’s pretty self-explanatory.” Dowoon patted a spot on his upper thigh. “I’m covered, do you need one?”

 

Jae shook his head. “Selune said her mark would protect me. Wait, are you saying you have a tattoo?”

 

“Yeah, it’s the easiest way to make sure you’re protected.”

 

“How come we’ve never seen it?”

 

“How often have you seen me with my pants off?”

 

Jae glanced at Brain through his rear-view mirror. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“Why would I tell you?” Brian laughed, “You don’t describe Wonpil’s thighs to me.”

 

“I haven’t seen Wonpil’s bare thighs!”

 

“Right.” The glance that Dowoon and Brian shared was intensely irritating.

 

“You two are the literal worst.” He grumbled, scowling at the two of them as they pulled up to Sungjin’s house. “Get out of my car, next time you two can walk.”

 

“You say that every time.” Dowoon laughed.

 

“Well, I mean it this time.” Jae insisted, “I hope it starts to rain while we’re in the house so that the two of you have to walk home all wet.”

 

“Like you could,” Brian jabbed him in the side. “you’re all soft and squishy on the inside.”

 

“Most humans are,” Wonpil said as he swung open the door. “heard you guys coming, Sungjin’s in his room.”

 

Sungjin’s room was uncharacteristically messy. His laundry basket was close to overflowing and there were a pair of socks peeking out from under his bed.

 

“Hey, man, you okay?” Jae flopped down onto the bed next to Sungjin.

 

“Well, okay’s subjective.” There were dark circles under Sungjin’s eyes. “I know it isn’t my fault, but I still can’t help but feel a level of responsibility.”

 

“I talked to Selune about your powers last night.” Sungjin’s immediately gave Jae his full attention. “The whole ‘bridge between life and death’ deal is her sister Shar’s thing. Selune said it’s probably her sending the demons after us too, which is probably why your powers haven’t been warning you about anything.”

 

“At least I know it’s not a problem with my mojo.” Sungjin managed a pretty genuine looking smile.

 

Wonpil settled on Sungjin’s other side and put a hand on his knee. “You don’t have to carry it all by yourself.”

 

“Ugh, no touching.” Sungjin peeled Wonpil’s hand off of him, but gave him a warm squeeze before dropping it back into his lap.

 

“Side note, surprise, it’s demons.” Dowoon sighed as he and Brian made themselves comfortable at the foot of the bed. “Does your mom have any sort of anti-possession charms that you can give your dad, or should I bring one for you tomorrow at school?”

 

“I’ll ask and text you tonight, they’re out right now.”

 

They all sat in silence.

 

“Now what?” Brian’s voice hung in the air. “It doesn’t feel right to run around playing detective, but just sitting here feels even worse…”

 

“I’m as lost as you are.” Sungjin closed his eyes and rubbed them with the heels of his palms. “I’m just so tired.”

 

Jae took Sungjin’s hands away and put his own in their place. A faint silver glow appeared around his hand and the swelling around Sungjin’s eyes slowly went down. “Maybe we should make an effort to keep our heads down. I know it seems like the obvious thing to do, but it seems like mess follows us.”

 

“What would you suggest? We never go anywhere anyway.” Dowoon pillowed his head onto Sungjin’s legs. “It’s not like we can avoid going to school, and we pretty much spend every waking hour together already.”

 

“There isn’t anything that we can do.” The words felt wrong in Jae’s mouth. “In the end, we’re just high school kids. We shouldn’t be poking our noses into things meant for the police.”

 

“I think we passed the whole ‘keeping to ourselves thing’ the second we followed Wonpil to go hunt the rogue down.” Sungjin said.

 

“Fine, we’ll start now.” Jae pushed himself upright. “No more following the breadcrumbs, no more hanging around crime scenes, no more going through my mom’s work email looking for clues, no more running around in the middle of the night.”

 

Wonpil’s hand shot up into the air. “What about full moons?”

 

“We’ve gotta make an exception for full moons!” Dowoon insisted, “It wouldn’t be fair to keep Pillie locked up inside all night. The basement’s big, but there just isn’t enough room for him to run around.”

 

Brian winced. “Ugh, do you remember how annoyed Mrs. Park was when he tried digging his way out?”

 

“Okay fine, full moons are the exception, but I think it’d be a good idea to add more protection around the perimeter though. Mountain ash doesn’t keep out everything.” Jae added.

 

“How do you fight a demon?” Brian asked, turning to Dowoon. “Could you punch a demon to death?”

 

“If anyone could, I’d put my money on Dowoon.” Wonpil laughed.

 

Dowoon rolled his eyes but grinned. “I appreciate your faith in me, but I could punch a demon in the face until my hands hit the bone and have no effect. There’s special artifacts you can use, holy water does burn them, and you can perform an exorcism.”

 

“Aw, no fire?” Brian pouted.

 

“You could, but then you’d end up with a flaming opponent. The demon would just end up jumping bodies after the old one completely burned up.”

 

Sungjin wrinkled his nose. “Gross.”

 

“I mean, we’ve fought things that were on fire before.” Wonpil said thoughtfully, “Do you think it’d be harder to fight a flaming demon than a flaming, deranged, alpha werewolf?”

 

“The werewolf was bigger, but I read somewhere that demons have telekinetic and telepathic powers and I really wouldn’t want to mess with that. I don’t have any demon experience, and I’d honestly rather keep it that way.” Dowoon admitted, “They’re so hard to deal with that I think the only person in my family who’s ever been assigned a demon case is my noona.”

 

Jae fought the urge to shiver. Dowoon’s sister was super nice, but the couple times she’d been around for Jae’s training, he was sore for weeks afterword. The woman was intense.

 

Brian pushed himself upright. “Wait, is that why…”

 

Dowoon nodded, lips pressed into a thin line. “That’s why.”

 

“Am I missing something?” Sungjin asked.

 

“She has a prosthetic leg.” Dowoon said, face dark. “Her anti-possession symbol was on her upper thigh too and the bastard cut her whole leg off. What was the point of damaging a vessel so badly it can’t even use it? It just did it to do it. She managed to get the upper hand and exorcise it while it was busy gloating, but it was a pretty close thing.”

 

“Holy shit…” Jae was never ever talking back to her again, even as a joke. “She went after it by herself?”

 

“No, she had a team. She was actually the most junior of the hunters, but the demon took them all out before deciding it wanted to mess with her.”

 

 “How many people went with her?” Sungjin asked.

 

“Three.”

 

A tense silence fell over the room.

 

“I’m okay with staying inside for the full moon.” Wonpil said quietly. “Just until everything’s been dealt with.”

 

Jae reached over and squeezed Wonpil’s hand. Wonpil looked somber, but he didn’t look scared and Jae wasn’t sure how he could stay so calm because he felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest. Wonpil squeezed back, ran his thumb over the back of his hand. He didn’t say anything, but Jae could see it in his face, _It’s okay. We’re going to be okay._

 

“Okay, I think I’ve tolerated this for long enough.” Sungjin shoved Wonpil to the side and crawled away from the two of them. “If you’re going to hold hands and make cow-eyes at each other, at least have the decency not to do it over top of me.”

 

Jae didn’t even bother to argue back, just rolled his eyes and put his hands back into his lap. Wonpil allowed it, but leaned back so he was pressed up against Jae’s chest.

 

Brian shot Jae a look, which he chose to ignore, and curled up closer against Dowoon.

 

“Do you guys wanna spend the night?” Sungjin asked, “I mean, it’s Friday, and if we’re all sticking together…”

 

“I need to go home for clothes, but sure.” Jae said.

 

“Can you drop us off at my place for stuff too?” Brian asked, gesturing to Dowoon. “His overnight stuff’s still at my house.”

 

Jae nodded and turned his attention to Wonpil. “How about you?”

 

“I’m good.” He pointed to his backpack in the corner. “I was going to stay over anyway.”

 

“What, you never even asked me!” Sungjin squawked.

 

“I would have been able to stay.” Wonpil said confidently. “Your mom loves me.”

 

“You can sleep on her bedroom floor then.”

 

“What, the floor? You always let me sleep in the bed!” Wonpil whined.

 

“I thought you’d want a different bedfellow this time.” Sungjin raised an eyebrow and looked towards Jae meaningfully.

 

 “Good point,” He turned to Jae. “bring the purple blanket, the green one gets too hot.”

 

Jae blinked several times, argument just on the tip of his tongue, but Wonpil beamed at him and he sighed, rubbing his temples with one of his hands. “Do you have a preference for pillows, or did you bring your own?”

 

“Bring me one, please.”

 

Obviously, Dowoon and Brian ribbed him the entire car ride back to his house.

 

He was surprised to see his mom’s police cruiser in front of the house and almost fell in his haste to get up the front steps.

 

“Mom?” He called, toeing off his shoes haphazardly at the front door. “Mom, are you home?”

 

Her shoes were in the entryway, but there was no response. Jae padded up the stairs, socks quiet on the hardwood, and slowly pushed open the door of her room. She was passed out on top of the blanket in her pajamas. He rearranged the sheets best he could without waking her and crept back out of the room.

 

Later, he wishes that he’d stayed.


	6. Chapter 6

Jae’s mother hadn’t been seen for 48 hours before someone realized she was missing. Everyone at the station had assumed she’d gone home, and Jae had assumed that she was at the station. It wasn’t until Jae called after school to see if she needed anything from the grocery store that anyone realized anything was wrong.

 

“You can’t stay here alone.” Nickhun said, voice gentle. “Why don’t I give you a ride over to your uncle’s house?”

 

Nickhun had always been his favourite of all his mother’s deputies, he’d even had a little crush on him when he was younger, which is probably why they’d sent him instead of someone else. He didn’t appreciate the attempt at subtle manipulation.

 

“What, are you going to let me sit in the front and turn on the sirens too?” Jae kept his expression neutral and ignored stab of guilt from the hurt in Nickhun’s eyes. “I’m 18. Legally, I’m an adult and I’m staying here.”

 

Nickhun ran his hand through his hair. “Fine, but I don’t want you to stay here alone. We still don’t know what’s going on and having you be here alone, the last place your mother said she’d be before she went missing, is just too dangerous.”

 

“I’ll have some friends come over then. I…” He swallowed hard. “I have to be here in case she comes back.”

 

Nickhun’s face said he wasn’t sure if a houseful of teenage boys would be any better, but the stubborn set of Jae’s jaw made him relent. He’d always been told he and his mom made the same face when they’d made up their mind about something.

 

Jae let him put a warm hand on his shoulder. “Do you want me to wait with you?”

 

He shook his head and stubbornly clenched his hands in his lap, refused to look at Nickhun again.

 

“Okay,” The couch creaked a little as he stood. “I’m going to let myself out. Remember to call if you hear anything.”

 

Jae didn’t reply, stretched himself out on the couch and turned to face away from Nickhun instead. There was a soft sigh, followed by the sound of Nickhun letting himself out, locking the door behind him.

 

His sister was heavily pregnant all the way on the east coast and she was too far along for her to fly. Her guilty weeping had been even worse than the crushing loneliness that Jae felt upon realizing that he’d be going through this alone.

 

“I know I was just saying that we should we should keep our heads down, but there’s no way that I can do that now.” Jae said, “I know that… thing took her, I just know it. You don’t have to come with me, but I’m going to look for her.”

 

Wonpil didn’t say anything, but his hand snaking into Jae’s own was enough. Dowoon and Sungjin were nodding before he was even finished speaking, but Brian sat in silence.

 

He could see how tightly Brian was gripping Dowoon’s sleeve, knuckles white. “Let’s go find her.”

 

Plan A was to have Wonpil sniff her out, which was exactly as awkward as it sounded, but Wonpil couldn’t catch anything.

 

“Her scent stops at the door to your room…” Wonpil looked sorry. “I do better at following sounds.”

 

Jae brightened. “How about her heartbeat? You’ve tracked me by heartbeat before.”

 

“Oh.” Wonpil shifted awkwardly. “That’s not something I can normally do. You’re… different.”

 

His heart skipped a beat and then sank. Jae put his head in his hands. “I shouldn’t have focused so hard on combat magic.”

 

“You couldn’t have known, we’ve never had to deal with something like this before.” Sungjin winced. “Maybe… I should try.”

 

“Tomorrow.” Dowoon insisted, ignoring Jae’s protests. “We know exactly what kind of things come out in the dark. We’re not going to be able to help your mom if we’re getting our asses handed to us by something we wouldn’t have encountered in the light of day.”

 

He desperately wanted to argue, but found the words wouldn’t come. Everyone else bustled around the living room, putting down blankets and pulling couch cushions and mattresses from upstairs into a familiar setup. When it came time to settle down, Jae was pushed to the centre. Wonpil curled closer so his chest was pressed to Jae’s back and a heavy arm fell around his waist, locking him in place. He was warm as always and the skin on skin contact where Wonpil’s face touched his neck was hot, chasing away some of the perpetual chill that’d settled into his bones.

 

“You don’t need to hold me down, I’m not going to sneak away in the dead of night.” Jae muttered, a dull sort of amusement in his voice. “I wouldn’t be able to crawl past Sungjin without waking him up anyway.”

 

“I know.” Wonpil buried his face into the shoulder of Jae’s soft t-shirt. “I just want you to remember I’m here.”

 

He startled when Brian’s hand snuck past Dowoon and settled firmly on his shoulder. “We’re all here.”

 

“It’s a promise, by the way, not a threat.” Dowoon said, smile fuzzy in the darkness. “You’re not alone.”

 

Brian was already snoring and even though Sungjin stayed quiet, Jae could hear his soft breathing from behind Wonpil. Dowoon’s hand just brushed one of his and he could see his eyes slowly drooping closed.

 

Wonpil was a steady presence against his back. He could feel the rise and fall of his chest with every breath and his breath was warm against Jae’s shoulder. He felt the press of lips against the back of his neck before Wonpil buried his face back into Jae’s shoulder. Jae found himself mimicking Wonpil’s slow, even breaths, and before he knew it sleep had overtaken him.

 

He didn’t dream. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful or not.

 

They woke with the early spring sunlight streaming through the windows. All five of them got dressed in silence, Wonpil distributing Cliff bars and water bottles to everyone as the bustled around the house. It was what Jae assumed gearing up for battle was like. He didn’t like it.

 

Wonpil took his hand after Jae locked the front door and passed his car keys to Sungjin. He tried to let go after they all piled into the car, but Wonpil’s grip remained firm.

 

“Hey,” When he looked up into Wonpil’s eyes, they were warm and honest and an immediate sense of calm washed over him. “I’ve got you.”

 

Jae tried not to think about it too hard about the implication of Sungjin’s powers working so well as he drove them towards the edge of town. Wonpil didn’t say anything even as Jae squeezes his arm so tightly that his own hand hurts. It felt like forever before Sungjin took a turn down a road that Jae had never seen before and pulling up beside a decrepit looking barn.

 

“Great, the demon’s a fucking cliché.” Brian muttered, pulling out his phone to check the bars. “At least it looks like we have cell service out here. I vote we take a look and if we find any clues, we call Kevin and have him bring some more cops out here because this place is giving me the heebies.”

 

Sungjin’s full focus was on the barn and he was shaking in the driver seat. “I’m sure there’s something in there. I’m sure she’s in there.”

 

Dowoon pulled a big knife out of his backpack. The leather wrapped around the handle was old but well kept, and the blade had a wicked sharp gleam. Dowoon passed a reusable water bottle, filled to the brim, to Brian.

 

“Try not to spill it all over the place.” Dowoon fiddled with the knife and turned back to face Jae. “I’m not going to use this unless I absolutely have to. Even if it looks like it’s hurting her, I want you to remember that the holy water only burns the demon. It might scream and beg you to help, but you have to ignore it. It’s going to try and play with your emotions, but you have to stand firm.”

 

Jae followed everyone else out of the jeep, called his guandao to his hands and gripped it like a lifeline. “She’s my mother.”

 

“I know, but she isn’t your mother right now. She’s a demon. If you can’t accept that fact, you’re not only going to get her killed, you’re going to get all of us killed.” Dowoon took a deep breath in when he saw that he’d cowed Jae into silence. “We don’t have to rush in right now. I texted my mom, she’s coming with a team right now.”

 

Jae twirled the guandao and slammed the butt of it against the dirt road they were standing on. Instead of answering, he stalked towards the barn, jaw clenched, Wonpil and Brian following close behind him.

 

It was dusty in the barn, particles shattering the sunlight streaming in from the broken windows, and Jae coughed into the sleeve of his sweater.

 

“Mom?” He called, hesitantly at first before getting louder. “Mom! Mom, it’s me! Mom!”

 

“Jaehyungie?” She was curled up against one of the walls of the barn, knees to her chest, work uniform dirty. “You found me.”

 

Her face was smudged with tears, long black hair a tangled mess from where it’d fallen out of the neat bun she usually kept it in, and Jae felt like his heart was breaking. Before he could rush over to her, Sungjin had already grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.

 

“Don’t,” Sungjin’s hand was shaking from where it was gripped almost painfully tight around his arm. “it’s not her. Open your eyes, Jae, you know it’s not!”

 

She pouted, the expression so foreign on her face that Jae was taken aback, and straightened up, stretched her legs in front of her like she was on their porch.

 

“You’re always such a wet blanket, Sungjinnie. I don’t know where you get it from because your parents can get wild.” She stood and somehow her 5’3” stature seemed to fill up the room. Sungjin shook even harder and Jae reached back to steady him. “I know they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but you really are quite the black sheep.”

 

Wonpil rushes forward to help him with Sungjin and his mom’s face brightens when she catches sight of him. “Oh! Wonpil too, you brought all your friends didn’t you? You never were very good at standing on your own two feet. Always need someone to hold your hand.”

 

“Mom…” He hated the way his voice shook. “Mom, please, if you can hear me say something. I’m going to save you.”

 

She let out a sigh that blew some of the loose hair out of her face. “Trust me, she can hear you. Keeps screaming for you.” Her face screwed up into a mockery of desperation. “’Jae, run! Get out of here, go get help!’ She’s so irritating. And unoriginal.”

 

“You were hiding out in an abandoned barn, and you’re saying Jae’s mom is the unoriginal one?” Brian’s incredulous voice rang through the room, and all the blood left his face when she turned her attention to him instead.

 

“Brian and Baby Dowoon,” She cooed, taking a step closer to them before Dowoon immediately pulled out the knife. “hey, put that away. You could take somebody’s eye out.”

 

Brian uncapped the bottle of holy water. The second Dowoon started to mutter the exorcism under his breath, Jae’s mother froze and her pupils blew wide, the black spreading out from her eyes in sickly veins. She pulled her gun out in an easy practiced movement and held it up to her head.

 

“Ah-ah, none of that.”

 

The click of the safety coming back spurred Jae into action. “Stop, stop! Please, don’t do this, I’ll do whatever you want.”

 

“Anything? People always say that, and they even think they mean it, but they never do.” His mom’s face brightened. “What if I told you I wanted to hop into Dowoon instead? Would you tear the symbol off his leg if I asked you to?”

 

Wonpil reached over to grab his wrist. Jae couldn’t tell if it was meant to be comforting or to hold him back from doing something stupid.

 

“Oh, what about Wonpil instead? Werewolves are fun, their bodies don’t wear out nearly as quickly.” She tilted her head to the side. “How about it, Jaehyungie? Trade your little boyfriend for mommy dearest? I promise I’ll give her back to you completely unharmed.”

 

“Deal.” Wonpil’s voice, sudden and clear, rang out through the empty space and the next thing anyone knew, there was a horrible black smoke rushing out of his mom’s body and into Wonpil’s.

 

Jae rushed over to catch his mother’s limp form, and he pressed his fingers to her neck to feel her weak but steady pulse. Luckily, Dowoon was able to keep his wits about him and flung a handful of mountain ash that settled into a neat circle around Wonpil.

 

“Aw,” The pout on Wonpil’s face was familiar but somehow wrong. Too stiff and his eyes were cold. “you guys are no fun.”

 

He let Brian wrap his jacket around his mom’s shoulders and Sungjin slumped down next to her, still shaking.

 

“What do we do now?” Jae asked, still gripping his guandao so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Will the exorcism still work now that it’s… inside Pillie?”

 

Dowoon muttered something and his eyes turned Alpha red rather than the previous ink black.

 

“Ohh, this is fun!” Wonpil giggled, sitting down cross-legged in the circle. “He’s less scream-y than your mom was, Jae. Still super emotive though.”

 

“Shut up.” He gritted out.

 

“He likes you more than I thought he did-”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“-cried himself to sleep the entire week you avoided him after that kiss. Thought he’d lost his chance when you saw the rogue alpha and realized what kind of monster he really was.” The demon winced in sympathy. “It’s odd because he’s such a confidant young man in everything, but when it comes to you, he’s riddled with insecurities. He thinks you’re too good for him, but from where I’m standing, it seems like it’s the other way around.”

 

It wrinkled Wonpil’s nose. “You know, I like this less than I thought I would. I can’t quite shake the feeling that there’s a wet dog smell lingering around. How about the banshee next?”

 

It said it like it was proposing wearing the jean jacket instead of the leather one. Sungjin was shaking so hard that his teeth chattered and all of the colour was drained from his face. The demon’s words didn’t seem to affect him, it was like he was fighting some sort of unseen battle inside his head that took up all his attention.

 

“Hello, Sungjinnie?” It crawled to the very edge of the circle and waved to where Sungjin was sitting against the wall. “Anybody home?”

 

“Stop.” Jae stepped in front of it, blocking Sungjin from view, voice low. “Leave him alone, you can have me instead.”

 

Dowoon’s outraged cry was only drowned out by Brian’s sharp “No!”

 

“How romantic!” It leaned forward and pursed Wonpil’s lips. “Shall we seal it with a kiss?”

 

“I’d rather not.” He said, putting his guandao down beside the circle.

 

“It wasn’t actually a question.”

 

Jae leaned forward before Brian could even take a step forward to pull them apart. Wonpil’s face was wrong, the skin too soft, too perfect, and his lips on Jae’s weren’t almost fever hot the way they usually were. The kiss felt wrong.

 

Selune’s mark burned.

 

As they pulled away, black crept at the edges of his vision, and Wonpil’s horrified face came into focus as the demon left his body.

 

It hurt. More than anything Jae’s ever felt in his entire life. He’d never so much as broken a bone in his life and it felt like his entire body was tearing itself apart and reforming over and over again, hundreds of times within a second.

 

Wonpil immediately tackled him after Dowoon broke the circle of mountain ash around him, used all his strength to hold Jae down while Brian dumped the entire bottle of burning holy water into his face. It smelled like the Fourth of July when he’d accidentally dropped his Styrofoam plate into the fire pit. He could feel his body fighting, hear the vicious words leaving his mouth, but there was no actual control.

 

Dowoon was chanting frantically and as he finished, the mark on his chest flared white hot and he felt the black at the edges of his vision retreat.

 

“Jae?” Wonpil eased the pressure on his shoulders. “Are you back?”

 

 “It’s still here. Selune’s blessing is keeping it back.” Wonpil helped him sit back upright. “I know what to do though.”

 

He reached for his guandao, still beside the smudged ash circle where he’d left it. When Jae touched it, his hands blistered and smoked and it was everything he could do to keep his grip.

 

It was strange to have the weapon that used to feel like an extension of his body feel so cumbersome, but when Jae spun it around, the blade went into his chest just as easily as it’d spun through the air whenever he’d practiced.

 

The demon entering Jae’s body had hurt, but its exit was nothing short of agonizing.

 

The look on Wonpil’s face somehow still hurt more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I find situational tension super difficult to write, so I hope it came across okay! 
> 
> (Also, please don't be too upset with me, I couldn't help myself.)
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/everywinter1)/[CC](https://curiouscat.me/everywinter)

**Author's Note:**

> This is me attempting plot. (Somebody hold me, I'm scared.)


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